Brave New World?
by Tintri
Summary: Dib goes to college, but is his bad luck going with him or is this new beginning going in a better direction? Rating subject to change.


Brave New World?

Note: I own only my own ideas and characters.

Premise: Sooner or later everyone grows up and goes off to school, start a new stage in their lives. But will it change your luck or is it more of the same?

Chapter one: FML

Dib looked at his watch.

Alright. So… college? Yes.

New town. New school. Higher academic stakes? Check.

Starting over and not being everybody's butt monkey? Not so much. How did guys from skool who barely got a 1.0 get into the same college he did at the top of the class?

Everything had started so well, too. He'd opted out of campus housing to take up an offer in the paper from another student looking for a roommate. So far, so good. Todd was a nice, if slightly twitchy roommate and, most importantly, didn't think he was bats hit crazy. Yes, a good start. The campus wasn't bad, the caf food wasn't too deadly, and he'd even found a decent job writing for a new local magazine. "Tunnel: the independent 'zine of all things underground." Basically anything was fair game.

And then he'd showed up for lab bio. Apparently the Neanderthals had to show him this was, unquestionably, their territory, and that he'd better not make them look bad by starting any of his "freak stuff". The inevitable ensued, and now he was hanging from a ridiculously high-nailed coat hook in the back room of the lab. Beautiful. Must be getting close to time for the class to start and nobody had come back yet. He could hear the dull roar of people slowly trickling in, talking, laughing, doing the usual meet-and-greet of the first day.

"Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn!" Someone ducked into the little backroom, pacing a little. They hadn't turned on the light, but by the voice, it was pretty evidently a female someone.

"No, no, tell me how you really feel." He couldn't help but comment.

She squeaked, and he heard her fumbling for something. Ah. Light switch. Ow… It took a few minutes, but gradually, vision came back, if spottily. Where the hell did Torque and his goons stash his glasses? He could make out a blurry object somewhere between auburn and black cherry that must be her head.

"You okay up there?" She asked, sounding surprised.

"Oh yeah," He replied sarcastically, "Just hanging out. Seen a pair of glasses anyplace?"

"Uh.. Here." Dib felt her press it into his hands. Putting them on, he was pleasantly surprised to find them unbroken. His vision came into focus to show a short, curvy little redhead in a lacy black top and jeans. The cause for her cursing appeared to be an unsightly rash on her neck and upper shoulders.

"Yikes." It came out before he could catch himself.

She gave him a look, and for a moment, --remembering a lifelong lesson from his sister never to piss off small women-- he was nervous, but it quickly melted into a pout. "Alright, alright. Yeah, I know, it's bad. It's not what it looks like, though. I dyed my hair last night and I was in a hurry this morning… And my pain in the ass sister didn't say anything about it before I ran out. Aaaand class is probably close to starting and I didn't bring anything to cover it up. But enough of my bad luck, would you like a hand down from there?"

"How?" He blinked. She couldn't be more than maybe five feet tall.

"Well, I'm going to make the special midget call and a few more will show up, and we'll build a human pyramid to get you down." She deadpanned. "No, there's a stepladder over in the corner." She shook her head. "Any special reason you're "hanging out" in here, or are you just practicing your vampire impression? Do I need you worry? Are you gonna sparkle?" She teased.

"Okay, okay!" He laughed, "I deserved that one. So who are you, anyway?"

"Elanor Wilson. Just call me Ela, though, okay? And who are you?"

"Uh. Dib. Dib Membrane." He blushed as she set up the stepladder next to him.

"Interesting name."

"Don't worry, I've had it my whole life." He replied.

"Really?" She laughed, "Never would have guessed that. Now I'm going to pull you to the side here, and you need to stand on your tiptoes a bit to unhook your coat when your feet touch the top step."

"That's a little crazy, won't I fall?" He objected a little cynically.

"Oh, relax, I'm stronger than I look." She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure I lift heavier people than you at work every day."

Dib blinked. "What do you do?"

"I'm a CNA." She said, reaching over and slipping an arm around his waist. "Believe it or not, you do need a bit of strength for that, especially if someone's going down."

He jumped a bit.

"Relax," Ela said, "I'm not going to hurt you." He was probably still a little shaken up. She imagined some dipshit who didn't seem to realize this wasn't high school roughed him up. She pulled him closer, "Alright, can you feel the step?"

"Yeah… I got it." He replied, an arm slipping around her. Remembering her instructions, he raised up a little higher on the step, unhooking himself. She caught him before he unbalanced and then let him go when he was steady.

"There…" Ela looked up at him… Holy…. He was pretty tall. "So… Who the hell do you suppose hangs their coat that high, Hagrid?"

"Maybe it's Bigfoot." Dib speculated, a slightly manic gleam coming into his eyes.

"Wrong part of the country for that, wouldn't you say?" She blinked. Was he serious or was that another joke? Hard to tell with this guy.

"You never know. There's more than one, after all." He said.

"Umkay. So… things are starting to quiet down out there, you might want to get in to class before it starts." Ela suggested.

"Well, yeah. Wait! Aren't you in Hervick's Lab Bio this period?" Dib asked.

"I'm going to sneak quietly into a back corner about when the professor makes his entrance, I'm told he's sort of the flashy sort." She blushed. That way no one would see the dye mishap.

"Yeah, I know, dad told me he was the best one here for this class. Why don't you just borrow my coat? It'll cover your neck up fine. I promise I'm not contagious or something." Dib blinked.

Ela's blush deepened, "Thanks."

"Fair is fair, technically, I guess I owe you one." Dib shrugged, laying his coat over her shoulders. It trailed the floor a bit on her petite frame and he couldn't help but smirk a little, amused.

"Eh…. Thanks anyway. And don't look at me like that, ya lanky giant. I'm not short, I'm just energy efficient."

"Sure." He snorted. "Bigfoot _is_ real, you know."

"Alright, Mulder," She smiled, Let's get to class." She pulled his coat around her, grabbing her bag and heading in.

"Hey!" Dib followed.

"If you don't like the nickname, I'll stop." Eh, he'd had a rough morning, she'd go gentle on him.

He paused, "Well… Actually, no, I just…" Dib shrugged, "Usually it's not just teasing?"

"I'm sorry…. Hey, did you have someone in mind for a lab partner for this semester?" Ela asked.

"Not really, I was hoping either I'd hit it off with someone by the time we had to pick, or got assigned or whatever, or else he'd let me work by myself?"

"Well, I'm pretty good with biology…" She said, "I took it in high school, but it was a pretty small school and didn't meet the requirements for accreditation in this state."

"Mine just sucked in general." He said. "I think I knew more than the tea-wait. Are you asking what I think you're asking?"

She looked down, adjusting her own glasses, small lenses with invisible frames. "Well, it's up to you. In case you hadn't noticed, A, I'm a dork, B, I'm not good with first impressions, and C, I'm not used to this many people. Generally? I don't like a lot of people outside work, because at least there I have some idea what to say and do and ugh. Rambling now."

"Eh, I'm told I do it too." Dib shrugged, "But you'll catch on to that later. So you want to be my lab partner?"

"Sure. If you want me to?"

"Well, yeah?" He nodded.

"Okay." She smiled.

"Good." More nodding.

"Yes."

The blinked at each other a few moments before finally heading to a lab station and sitting down.

* * *

Let me know if anyone's interested in this one or not. Still trying to decide if this should be platonic or otherwise.


End file.
